In Case You Didn't Already Know....

Phemie is the cutest hamster a girl could wish for.

And she just got even cuter.

She has been asleep on my shoulder for over an hour now. Seriously. That never happens. With any hamster. Ever! And the fact that she seems to be content to continue sleeping there.... AWESOME!Sorry about the lack of quality in these photos. The only camera that is close at hand right now is my webcam on the computer. I'm surprised that I even managed to get a photo at all. Trying to position a laptop with one hand whilst trying not to awaken the sleeping hamster that you are trying to photograph is harder than it sounds.

I also typed most of this post one handed. Again, not easy!

Oh, and I know I look terrible but this is pre make-up and dressed. Blah.

Sweet dreams, Phemie!

Archers Ice Cream Parlour

Beth, Sarah and I went to Archers today which is just outside of Darlington. It is one of my favourite places to go.
We got ice cream: As always, it was delicious. I went for banana and hokey pokey (it has cinder toffee in it and you can’t go wrong with cinder toffee!). They really do make great ice cream there. Definitely worth a visit if you can get there. Amazingly, or not, they have cows on the farm. These calves were seriously cute. Hopefully I didn’t get E.Coli. Wash your hands properly, kids!
There were chickens everywhere. No lie. They were running around all over the place…. bothering you when you ate your ice cream…. Like I said, totally worth a visit. We also wanted to go in the sunflower maze but gate to access it was shut and we would have felt very dishonest if we’d just climbed the fence….. it was very tempting though!
Instead we decided to take photos. Most of these were where we were trying to get Sarah to do a sad face…. We weren’t terribly successful as you will see! That one was just creepy so we decided to do some smiley ones. Turns out they were just as difficult…. Yup, we are all super photogenic!
Such a fun afternoon for Beth’s last free weekday afternoon until half term!!

The New and Improved Phonetic Alphabet

For some reason the other night my Mum and I decided to try and remember as much of the Phonetic alphabet as we could. We didn’t do too well. If you look at the table below the words in bold are the ones that we remembered. It took a looooong time to get even that many, believe me. We started to fill in the blanks with our own suggestions and then just went ahead and completed our own version. Personally, I think it is an improvement on the original with my favourite being ‘Dog breath’.

Real Phonetic Alphabet	Our Made Up Version
Alpha	Anthill
Bravo	Beehive
Charlie	Cobweb
Delta	Dog breath
Echo	Elbow
Foxtrot	Fleabite
Golf	Grandpa
Hotel	Hanky
India	Igloo
Juliet	Jester
Kilo	Krakow
Lima	Lipstick
Mike	Mousetrap
November	Noggin
Oscar	Odd job
Papa	Pirate
Quebec	Quibble
Romeo	Rudolph
Sierra	Sandbag
Tango	Teacup
Uniform	Udder
Victor	Violin
Whiskey	Wobble
X-ray	XFactor
Yankee	Yorkie
Zulu	Ziplock

Highest Mountains, Lowest Valleys

It was another good day at the office for the Darlington Football Club players yesterday.

Does sarcasm come across in written form?

Ok, so we lost again. It was 2-0 at home to Bournemouth. Bummer.

I was quite impressed with the crowd today. Nearly 2,000 people turned out to watch the match (1,999 people to be exact. Shame we couldn’t squeeze that one extra person into the ground!) I wonder how many will be at the next home match which is a week on Tuesday against Rochdale.

Whilst I was watching the match (the play wasn’t exactly captivating) I came up with the reasons why I still go despite the fact that we haven’t won a league game yet this season. In fact we are still languishing at the bottom of the entire league with only one point.

You may ask what the point is. ‘Give it up already,’ I hear you say but it is too difficult. Yes, I could go and support a club doing well or even almost guaranteed to get the right result….. Chelsea, Man Utd, one of the Old Firm, or Bournemouth as it happens. But that, my friends, would be wrong. Not only would it be wrong, it would be boring.

My reasons for still going to every home game that I can despite Darlington not getting any results:

1. This is my 10th season supporting the club. I’m not about to throw all that away for some fickle allegience to another club (e.g. mentioned above!).
2. The Underdog theory. Everybody loves the underdog so why should it be any different with Darlo. It is what the Scottish national team thrives upon. We could really use this to our advantage.
3. My club needs my money (fine, my Dad’s money). It needs all the money that it can get. If I don’t go, then it is unlikely that my Dad will go and therefore the club will lose out on nearly £40 worth of support. Wow! That is a ridiculous amount to be paying to see that kind of football with those results. Maybe I’ll just scrap this list altogether…
4. Maybe we could go for some kind of record. The team to be relegated with the lowest points total, the least goals scored, with the fewest scored against them or, maybe, we could be the first team to be relegated by the end of October. Smashing. But I see that Portsmouth are giving us a run for our money on this record thing. They haven’t even got off the mark yet. I’m beginning to appreciate having even one point! I would be strangely proud to be associated with a record breaking team like that. If you can’t laugh at yourself then what else can you do?

 

Actually this is the main reason why I still attend these matches:

I live in hope. I hope that on any given match day my team will put on the performance of their lives. I hope that I will witness something amazing, spectacular. I hope that just once my team will lead in a match. Most of all I hope that this match will be the one, the one where we finally show everyone what we are made of, why the supporters carry on following the team despite the lows. I hope that this match will be one of the highs, one of the good moments in a football supporters season, the game where we turn things around.

I hope that this game will be the one where we take home all three of those precious points, the game that we win.

That is why the Quakers get my continued support because, no matter how deep the valleys are, I’ll always be waiting, hoping for that mountain top, hoping that this is finally the day that I can stand at the end of a match and applaud my team, knowing that they have done me and the rest of their supporters proud.

I ♥ Strictly

Well, that is me glued to my television screen every Saturday from here to Christmas.

I ♥ Strictly Come Dancing. I really do. I’ve been two years without it and it is finally here again!

Yes, in America they did have Dancing With The Stars but it was completely different. Ok, no. It was all too similar for my liking. The theme music was exactly the same. They even had two of the same judges, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli. But it just wasn’t Strictly. It was a poor imitation and I just could not get into it. I didn’t really want to get into it. It was just a little too painful to listen to that wonderful theme tune and not have Brucey and Tess waiting for me at the end of it. They only had three judges and Craig Revel Horwood wasn’t one of them. He is definitely my favourite. I did not like their third judge Carrie Ann Inaba.

And talking of pointless judges, there is definitely something different about Strictly this year. Arlene has been ousted and replaced by Alesha Dixon. Yes, ‘pop star’ Alesha Dixon, not ‘professional dancer and therefore qualified to judge other people on their ballroom and latin skills’ Alesha Dixon. Fine, she won Strictly in 2008 but so what? She didn’t reassure me by her judging performance tonight either. It is a dancing competition. I don’t think she talked about dancing at all. Useless. At least Mr Revel Horwood was on top form. I really think he is mint.
Actually the first show of this series was last night (Friday) and I couldn’t watch it because I was at the Darlington Civic Theatre watching the Soweto Gospel Choir. So I watched it on BBC iPlayer this morning whilst still in bed. I also ate a gigantic crispy cake for breakfast. Yes, I’m disgusting.

I really enjoyed the show (apart from Alesha Dixon. Don’t get me started on her duck chuckle. And it thought Bruno Tonioli was irritating).
Well, I complained about Alesha Dixon not talking about the dancing in her critique so I suppose

I’d better write a little about it. But I don’t pretend to be a dancing expert….

My favourite is Chris Hollins. I just love his sports presenting. He was my pick of all the celebs before the show even started.

Chris came second in the judges’ scoring last night. Good for him. He did really well. His dancing looked good to me. I wasn’t blown away but somehow I didn’t expect that on the first show!! His face during the Tango was so funny. He has to work on that a bit.

I also think Linda Bellingham did brilliantly. She looked terrific on the dance floor. It wasn’t the most exciting Tango (should that be capitalised? I feel like I’m talking about an orange fizzy drink!) but I think she did what she did very well.

Of course Ali Bastian stands out. Her waltz was beautiful. I’ll be really interested to see how she with the Latin dance tonight. *Yay! Strictly two days in a row! Hurrah*

My favourite professional dancer, Anton du Beke, was in the group dance. He is partnered by Laila Rouass this year. I’m a little sad about that cos I’m not her biggest fan. I would love Anton to win it though. He is constantly cheery. It is so infectious. I smile back at him through the TV or computer screen. I can’t wait to see how they do in the individual dances next week.

Oh Strictly! All the glitz, glam, sequins, satin, feathers, fake tan….. hapless celebs. What a great mix!
I guess you all know where I’ll be tonight at 7.25pm!

My Little Jet-Setter

*Updated Below*

It has been a while since I have updated you on my wee friend, Hamish.

I think that it is fair to say that I have beaten Hamish home. I've been back in the UK for over two months and he has been jetting the globe since May 30th.
So Hamish started his journey in Central Park, NYC. Since I said my farewells to him on that sunny day with Chen Li he has travelled nearly 4000 miles (3969 miles to be precise). He has made 3 further stops on his journey so far. He was in Germany for a good long while. Firstly in the north near the Belgian border, then he moved further south right by the French border south of Strasbourg. Next he moved to just beside the Swiss border, in fact the nearest city to him at that point would be Basel.


Now he has finally crossed the Swiss border and is in a Travel Bug hotel at Zurich Airport! How exciting. Maybe he'll come closer to home this time.... or maybe he'll travel further away! Either way, I can't wait to find out!

*Update: It is now 00:07 on Sept 19th. Hamish has already been picked up. According to the log left by the person who collected him he is heading eastwards! How thrilling!*

Snapshots of Summer 09

Beth's 'B' Birthday Bash Keswick Week 1Keswick Week 2Megan's Surprise 18thTransforming Sophie into Bellatrix Lestrange Day in Edinburgh with Beth and MumDay in London with Sophie

The Problem With Vegetables

Sweet Phemie LOVES broccoli.But sometimes she has a hard time storing it in her pouches!
You should see her trying to squeeze carrot rounds in there.

Old Friends Still Good Friends

From this

to this.

I had a wonderful lunch with Emma. It is so good to catch up with old friends!

A looooong football post!

It was a mixed bag of results this weekend. Actually, even though it was mixed, I was able to revel in the good side of the results.

I went home this weekend, footballing home that is. And what a return it was. The weather was dreary and dull and terribly, terribly wet but that didn't matter one single bit. I was just glad that I wasn't at the front of the west stand cos they got drenched!

Anyhoo, Dad and I got up super early and drove up to the magical city of Glasgow. Hurrah! My first time back in the city since coming home. It hasn't changed much. It probably hasn't stopped raining since the last time I was there.

We arrived just in time for a quick nosh at our favourite Partick diner, Cullis'. It really is wonderful and two eggs, chips and beans definitely keeps you going long after the football match has ended. We ate really fast. I'm surprised that we didn't get crazy bad indigestion. I'm very thankful that we didn't. After that we started our journey through Glasgow to get to Hampden.

First stage: walk along Dumbarton Road to Partick train station. Here was the biggest difference that I came across. It nearly took my breath away. They were doing up Partick station when I left and now it is all finished. It used to be dark, dirty and dingey and now it is light and airy and has a totally different layout from before. Ok, it is only really the kiosks that are in a different place but it freaked me out a little.

Second stage: train to Grand Central Station (not in New York anymore!). Same as always!

Third stage: train to Mount Florida. This was the quietest train that I have ever caught to Mount Florida. Usually you are squashed in like sardines (think Chinese transport system and you might just get the picture!). Amazingly we managed to get seats AND the people who were standing had decent amounts of personal space. Incredible.

Fourth stage: walk the short distance from the train station to Hampden Park whilst looking for a shop that sells gum, showing match tickets to multiple policemen/women and having bags searched.

(Thankfully they didn't search my bag too hard cos I came away from Hampden and realised that I had a large bottle of Ralph Lauren perfume with me. A large, glass bottle. They frown upon those at football matches. Not totally sure how the policewoman missed that one but I'm rather pleased that she did.)

Arrived at destination.

It was only just beginning though.

It was 'Saltire Saturday' so everyone had to bring their Saltires with them. Dad and I both had one with us. I mainly used mine as a blanket.

This is the Saltire just in case you didn't know what in the world I was talking about.This is the Lion Rampant, Scotland's other flag. Maybe Wednesday when Scotland play the Netherlands it will be 'Lion Rampant Wednesday'. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

It was a 'do or die' game against Macedonia (probably should have mentioned who it was against earlier!) for World Cup Qualification. We did it. 2-0 with both goals in the second half (which was a bit of a pain as it was at the other end of the pitch to where we were sitting).

Some things to mention: Scott Brown (amazing, AMAZING. Ok, so he can be a hot headed brute but he played so well. He was the pick of the bunch for sure.), James McFadden's needless booking (still can't work that out), the Tartan Specials at half time, Loch Lomond (had to wipe away a wee, stray tear), the pie that flew over the edge when Scott Brown scored that first goal (rather unfortunate that we were on the second tier and precisely why I wouldn't let my Dad put his coffee on the ledge.), McFadden's super run passed multiple defenders AND goalkeeper to score, Shaun Maloney came on as a sub (HURRAH!), the big brawl just before half time, the Hampden Roar (took. my. breath. away.).

Here are a few pics:

Next stop: the Netherlands. Hampden Park. Wednesday. 7.30pm. We've got to win it to have any possible chance of getting a play off place to go to South Africa next Summer. I can't wait to make the trip to Glasgow again. I shall not be walking from Hampden to the city centre again though.

I think it is fair to say that there is some optimism in the Scotland camp. In the Darlington camp on the other hand......

3-0 defeat away at Lincoln. That still leaves us propping up the whole of the football league with a measly 1 point out of 18. It would be laughable if it wasn't so achingly painful. I really didn't think that we would have a team this season at all so I guess that I should be thankful that we even have one point. It is just hard to with the new season optimism that you get regardless of how cobbled together you know your team is. The thing is that I really don't feel like I can bag on these players. Most of them came here knowing the club's plight and I am so grateful to them for coming despite that.

The most unfortunate thing is that the team doesn't actually play that badly. Not the games that I've seen anyway. They certainly played well in front of the 828 people that crammed into the 27,000 seater Arena to see them win against Lincoln (ironically) in the JPT. That game was the final straw for Lincoln's manager Peter Jackson who was sacked after it. Everyone knows what happens the next game after a manager is sacked. The team always win. It was just a shame that Darlington were playing Lincoln in the league that next game. I don't know why anyone is surprised that we lost that game so badly.

I have no doubts that the team will improve. They've already been obviously improving in the way that they play. They are starting to know where each other are going to be at any given time on the pitch. I just hope that they get their act together and shock some teams sooner rather than later.

Like I say, mixed bag of results this weekend. Hopefully there'll be more of the same for Scotland and a big change for Darlo!